Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Success!

Guess whaaaaaaaaat? Got my braces off today. I did! You wanna see photos, don't you. Okay, okay okay. I'll do that whole before and after thing. Except I seem to have lost my before picture. When I do find it I will post it. For now, here goes...

With braces:


This afternoon:



my teeth

I had a hard time getting a photo of my “permanent” (two-year) retainer on my lower teeth, but I'm not sure I can get a better one, so here's a photo I am borrowing from a Danish website that better illustrates the retainer affixed to my bottom teeth:


not my teeth

For two years I will need to use threaded floss on the bottom six front teeth.

I have to wear a clear retainer over my top teeth all the time for eight weeks:



I cannot for the life of me pronounce S's or soft C's with it in. My real first name has one of those in it. It thucks. I'm all lithpy again. I had to record a phone message for my work phone today and I had to remove the retainer or else it sounded like I was 6 years old without my two front teeth and with my thumb thuck in my mouth. Anyway, real point of telling you about the retainer: I won't be doing teeth whitening until I only have to wear the retainer at nighttime.

I don't know the terminology to differ between the clear retainer that covers all of my teeth (my co-worker said her orthodontist called it a splint) but in 8 weeks I will begin wearing a retainer that sits on the roof of my mouth:



Like this one, only in
fuchsia instead of the scary
patriotism color palette


Since I will only wear that at night for sleeping my co-worker and the ortho assistant suggested choosing a fun color, so I went with fuchsia. Don't have that retainer yet, but when I do I'll post about it.

Two things I can now eat with reckless abandon -- gum and peanuts:



Yippy!

11 comments:

Bryan said...

You do get to take out the bottome retainer to eat, right?

Yay teeth!

I'll need dentures by the time I'm 40.

Avitable said...

Congrats. I'm slowly assembling enough information from each little tidbit so that I can show up at your door someday with a hunk of cheese and Office seasons 1 and 2 on DVD.

Poppy said...

Bry - The bottom retainer is actually just a piece of metal glued to the back of my 6 front teeth. It does not come off until forcibly removed by the orthodontist's assistant. The top retainer must be removed if I am chewing, but can stay in for drinking beverages.

Avi - I fully expect it, and am prepared for your visit with 12 recordings of Veronica Mars in the DVR and a chocolate silk torte to rival most flourless chocolate cakes. :D

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your venture into bubblegum... : )

bdogg_mcgee said...

Woo-hoo! Now you can eat pizza without cutting it up!

:)

Elizabeth Tarney said...

WOW! Your teeth look awesome! So perfect and straight - your ortho did a great job. I got my new invisalign tray (splint?) yesterday and am I am lisping right along with you.

Congrats on your new, beautiful teeth!!!

Nessa said...

Don't eat peanuts and chew gum at the same time though. Yuck.

Cool pictures.

P'nut said...

Wow. It looks like braces are a huge committment -- years of your life. Are straight teeth worth all the hardware exchanges and food limitations?

Poppy said...

P - For me, if I didn't get braces now, I would eventually have TMJ or other really awful jaw problems, so I'll wear an appliance for the rest of my life if/as I suspect I need to. I was never in it for the straight teeth, I was in it because my teeth were starting to cave inward and crowd each other so much that I was seeing hairline cracks in my teeth. I think I teeth look FREAKISHLY straight now, wish I could find that "before" photo. My teeth look like caps/veneers to me now! If you're in it to prettify yourself I'd say bag it, but if you have a medical reason to do it then go for it!

NotCarrie said...

Gorgeous! Congrats.

P'nut said...

Besides not knowing what TMJ is (but I got the jist), I think that's pretty reasonable. Thanks for explaining.

A long time ago, when I was a kid, a dentist recommend my parents get me braces but they couldn't afford it (I have a little overcrowding in the bottom front) and as I got older, no other dentists recommended it... in fact, I've had comments like "you have rock-of-gibraltar teeth" so I guess that means they're in good health.

I would, however, be interested in some ZOOM whitening....